South Africa is quite a large country and when one travels from Cape Town and the wine-lands, back to Johannesburg, there are various methods of getting there.
One of the most painful is to travel by car, get up at 04:00 and drive straight through - a long journey of about thirteen hours without stopping - madness! A much more civilised method is to travel until eventide and then call in at a friendly inn.
This year we decided to go off the beaten track and visit a place we hadn't been to before. We left Cape Town at 06:00 and drove in fairly leisurely fashion to as far as Colesburg and the Gariep Dam. Thence we turned eastwards and headed for Bethulie and our final destination, Smithfield on R701. This is a little bit out of one's way but the Free State scenery in the late evening more than makes up for the extra 40 Kms. One huge compensation is that the volume of traffic dwindles dramatically, resulting in a far safer ride.
In Smithfield we pulled in to a delightful bed and breakfast establishment called the Artist's Colony (051-683 1138) run by Robert and Susan Jewell. It is most tastefully furnished and the cottage we stayed in was a National Monument. We were able to walk around the town before dinner and were very interested in the historical graveyard, with many Boer War graves.
That night we walked about 100 meters up to Luigi's Bar where we were able to have drinks and a splendid supper, put on by the new owners Jill and Paul Hopper . They also run a superb restaurant called the FAMOUS PIGOUT COUNTRY KITCHEN RESTAURANT. It is rustic, vibey and full of character - try their "MOERSE BURGER". Smithfield is known for it's goats milk cheese, which is served with homemade bread and fig preserve!
The next morning a superb Ulster Fry-up saw us on our way out of Smithfield, relaxed and refreshed, with an easy stint to Johannesburg ahead of us!
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